New China (Scarborough) - From the beginning of time, the white man has always wondered: beyond the Great Wall, and the Forbidden City, what is it that they eat in the Far East? This was one of life’s biggest questions for years, alongside such great ones as ‘what is the meaning of life?’, ‘does god exist?’ and ‘if a tree falls in a forest…’.

Well, since China opened its doors to foreigners from all over, some of the mystique has magically disappeared. However, I still get asked questions about my motherland. Specially when I attend a Chinese wedding. Well, here I am to provide a good sample of what it is as Chinamans eat, when two people decide to bind their souls together, forever and ever.

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See what happens when you drop a nuke on people? they eat raw frogs and shit in each others mouths. Let this be a warning to North Korea.

As a Chinaman, I find many NCP’s curious as to what I eat. I have decided to start a series called “Stuff I Eat” that will unveil the foreign world of Chinese food to all NCPs. I don’t eat the most obscure of Chinese foods, but being from Hong Kong, I do eat my share of things.

To the fellow Chinaman, yea this is usual foods, but they don’t know what we know.

Steamed Beef Tripe

Damn, just looking at this makes hungry! yum yum yum. A very common order amongst Chinese people at a Dim Sum, this plate is often not touched or ignored by foreigners. They complain about texture, what the hell ? whats a little work for some good taste? I don’t know. This is basically beef tripe, with some ginger, maybe some green onion steamed. Its freaky good. Sure its part of a cows stomach and you might think its weird to eat that. Guess what? It’s not. The wikipedia entry for tripe indicates all kinds of people eat this food.

Let me tell you, the beer festival is a great way to spend a sunday. Everyone is jovial and having a good time. Beers are cheap too. Yesterday was the first time I attended the beer festival and I had an excellent time. The drinks were 1$ for 4 oz (1/4 pint) but most of the vendors were generous and give you more then that. Some vendors gave out 1/2 pints for a dollar. Some of the beers I drank were Robert Simpson, Mill Street, Amsterdam, Trafalgar’s Critcal Mass (15% alcohol!), Heritage Brewing’s , loads of Steamwhistle and some others. The beers I listed were the ones I drank near the end, and I can’t really remember what I drank in the beginning.

Anyway, I highly recommend it to those who haven’t been there.

Put headphones on for this one:

Bought this sleeping bag from MEC yesterday, I am going to need ot for this weekend and for when I got to New York at the end of the month. The past two months have been extremely expensive as I am probably spending beyond my means. Edmonton was rather pricey, as I ate a lot of meals at chain restaurants (since thats all Edmonton has — Joey’s, Boston Pizza’s, Montanas, etc). Actually, while I’m at it, lets do an Edmonton eating report.

Edmonton Eating Report

Joey’s Mediterranean Grill - I went here for dinner one night, and me and some friends shared a calamari appetizer, and I had a lobster ravioli. Both of them were pretty good, but it was a bit pricey. I guess it IS lobster, but just it was very little lobster. My friends said there were really hot waitresses there too, but we got served by some dude.

Dadeo - I went here with my friend Willa. This was not a chain restaurant, but a little place on Whyte ave (or as I like to spell it..White Ave..hahahaha). The place has a retro feel to it, and some of the seats look like they were straight out of a 50s diner, I wouldnt be surprised if that wasn’t the case. Anyway, the food here was great, I had a Po Boy Pulled Pork sandwich that came with Sweet Potato fries. They gave us some kind of bread as appetizer that came with this Jalapeno Jello spread..that was very good as well. Either way, I haven’t really had Cajun food before, and if this was a decent sample, I think I will have more Cajun food in the future. I also had a hard time not putting in some sort of Katrina/Slavery/Cotton jokes when writing this last paragraph.

Boston Pizza - the old standard. In Edmonton, BP’s is one of the few restaurants that are open really late at nite, so it is heavily frequented by people of my demographic group. It’s pretty plain, and the menu has about as much creativity as a 70 year old accountant. Still, it is open late at night, and the food is tolerable. So its something you can rely on, if you have need something familiar. I used to like their 4 cheese fettucini, but they have since removed that from their menu. F-tards.

Pho Hoa - I think I went to this place three times when I was there. Its hard to pass up on some good Pho (or Vermicelli). I think Pho and Congee are the Asian soul food. Sure as hell better then cornbread and grits. Anyway, I think its pretty hard to screw up Pho, so it’s hard to say anything bad about the place. I actually enjoyed this restaurant, but like I said, its not really any different from any other Pho place.

Tau Bay - Another Pho place, they don’t have a website, and chances are probably don’t even know English well enough to make one. Anyway, they had good pho as well.

Good Buddy - A Edmonton franchise that has three chinese restaurants within the city, I went there a couple time for eats. It serves standard chinese food, and they are pretty decent. On various occasions, I had some of m two usual chinese eats..congee and beef brisket noodle. I pretty much can’t go more then a few weeks before having those, or I would probably die. Note, I took these pictures off google or flickr.

Julios Barrio - An Alberta “Mexican Food” franchise, I was already put off by it’s lack of authenticity when I arrived (i have been there several times). After moving to Toronto, my mexican food standards are pretty damn high and the fact that this place seemed to be run by white people was already a big turn off. No offense to them , but Mexican restaurants are only good if they are runned by some immigrant Mexican family. I didn’t even order food here, but my friend Anu ordered an appetizer platter and I sampled some of that. Pretty standard westernized mexican stuff I guess, it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t really mexican. This is probably more of a Mexican’t restaurant then a Mexican Restaurant. I might be a bit harsh, but if you ever walk into a Chinese restaurant and see some white guy named Bobby Jay come up and serve you, you’d probably have some reservations. Same deal.

Montanas - Another chain restaurant, not too good, not too bad, pretty tolerable. Your standard white food (SWF) restaurant. I probably prefer this place to BP’s. I still remember the time I went to Ottawa to train with Magma, and I got into my hotel and this was the first restaurant I saw (and went to). Then I ordered ribs and beers and stuff and expensed it. That was the first time I ever exspensed anything.

Red Robins - Another SWF restaurant, only they have awesome, awesome burgers. Unlimited fries too, but thats pretty irrelevant, since you can only really have so many fries. If it was unlimited burger, then that’d be better.

Asian Grill House - A potluck / grill place where its all you can eat. I like the whole hot pot / grill idea, I think Toronto would benefit for it. There was plenty of different foods, and they also have satay sticks that were pre-cooked. The selection was decent, but the restaurant itself was kinda ghetto, so you had to eat with caution. There were Oysters (!!!) there for anyones taking, but since there were a lot of chinese people there, it was damn near impossible to get one. Everytime they’d bring out a bunch, my fellow asians would descent on that thing like vultures on a carcass. So I didn’t get any. Overall, I would probably not go there again, since the after effects were pretty nasty.
Osaka or Kyoto - I forgot which Jap restaurant I went to. While the food was decent, it wasn’t 1/10th the goodness that is Sushi Island. Like my friend Anu said, Japanese food is a delicate balance of quality and quantity, and this place didnt really have enough of the good stuff, and the good stuff wasnt sushi island good.

Panago Pizza - I really enjoy Panago pizza, especially it’s bbq chicken pizza. I really wish they had this here, as I am not a big fan of Pizza Pizza or Pizza Hut.

Royal Pizza - Went to this local franchise after playing 2+ hours of hockey in 30 degree weather. This means that I could have eaten anything and it woulda been good. Royal Pizza is pretty decent for a cheaper type restaurant. I had baked spaghetti and meatballs, and that might been the first time I ordered that in a restaurant since my days as a juvenile eating off the kids menu at Smittys. Speaking of which, me and my mom used to go to Smittys and we’d order two things off the kids menu and my mom would eat one, since it was way cheaper. Kinda scamming the system. Anyway, one of the times the waitress told my mom (in a very friendly way) that she shouldnt be doing that. Then after we paid the bill, I felt like playing arcade, so I took the tip from the table ..and I still feel guilty about that to this day…cos the waitress was pretty nice.

Brewsters - another SWF restaurant. I watched the World Cup final here and had breakfast. Aunties and Uncles this was not, but it was okay. They brew their own beer too, so bonus points for that.

Murrieta - the big one. Somewhere along the line, me and my friends decided to go to a pricey-as-fuck (by our working class standards) restaurant. This was the place that was chosen, the steak I had was like 28 bucks or something. Also had mussels as appetizer. The food here was great, but man, thats pricey. I didn’t really pay my entire bill since I had won a previous bet and as a result, had a almost free meal (paid for the wine and some of the mussels).

Tropika - I remember when this place first opened and everyone here in Edmonton was like..wow, a thai/indonesia/malaysian (or as i like to call it. the typhoon belt) restaurant. I remember it used to be really good and I looked forward to going to this place. Then I moved to Toronto, and theres one of these restaurants on every block. Anyways, the food is still good here, but not great. Probably better if I never went this time and leave the memories to the past.

Anyway, I should probably get back to work now.

Music I listened to so far today:

Say Hi To Your Mom - Impeccable Blahs
Pony Up! - Make Love To The Judges With Your Eyes
Special Needs - Funfairs & Heartbreak